*sigh*

"There was a slightly jarring moment when a fan asked the panel if there would ever be a female Doctor, and Steven [Moffat] pointed out it would be entirely possible, but then asked for a show of hands who would like to see that happen. This got about 50% of the audience raising their hands, but then he asked how many people would switch off the show if there was a female Doctor, and 20-30% of the fans put their hand up, to a certain amount of gasping from everyone else."

Leaving aside the question of how many of those 20-30% would actually follow through, you'll notice what he didn't ask - and probably never even considered - was "how many people who currently DON'T watch the show might switch on if there was a female Doctor?"

It reminds me of when smoking was banned in Australian pubs a few years back. The owners lamented that it would drive them out of business, because their patrons LIKED to smoke and wouldn't want to come to a non-smoking venue.

What they never considered was that there were a lot of people who were staying away from pubs because they couldn't stand the smoke. I don't have sources, but my understanding is that when the ban was enacted, what little custom the pubs lost from smokers was balanced out by the influx of nonsmokers.

Selection of Disbelief

Provoked by the recent Dr Who discussion:

Is there a word for the phenomenon where SF/F fans who are willing to accept the most outlandish of magic suddenly remember to quibble about 'plausibility' about relatively mundane things when those things happen to ping their RL prejudices?

This mostly shows up in SF fandoms:

* Technology elevates Space Marines from humans to seven-foot supermen who can spit acid, hibernate for centuries, breathe vacuum (though not indefinitely), and acquire another creature's memories by eating it - but this technology is unable to cope with the lack of a Y chromosome.

* Doctor Who (which is really F with SF trappings these days) stars a regenerating alien with multiple hearts and telepathic translation powers who can make somebody else immortal by accident, but the possibility of him regenerating as a woman violates a fundamental biological aspect of human existence. (Is it just me, or does one of the participants in this debate give off the impression that he's never actually watched the show he's arguing about?)


But I've seen it in fantasy too - plenty of people are willing to accept dragons and wizards without a murmur, but find the idea of female fighters offends their carefully-honed sense of historical accuracy.